Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Superintendent Wardynski, tell us again how there is no
'atmosphere of fear'. Here are the words of one of your employees from
the Underground Educator Network:

"I am writing this against my better judgement. I am so scared to trust and I am
scared of what could happen if I am found out. I need my job. I love
the children I teach and for the most part, I love to teach. I just
don't like what my job has become! Yes, I am a HSV teacher. There is a
definite feeling that teachers are not valued. Morale is extremely low.
We are treated like glorified baby-sitters/test proctors. I wish it
wasn't like this for my kids. They deserve so much more!! I wonder if
the powers that be ever thought about how few of us teachers in the
system send our own kids (or plan to send our children) to HSV schools.
Most teachers I know live out of the district and rather than choosing
to have their child come to school with them, they have their child
attend the school in their school zone. Says a lot, doesn't it? I could
go on and on but I think others have voiced a lot of what I would say.
PLEASE...I am writing you because I think you are trying to help us.
Please don't let my name/email get out. Thank you for all you are doing
for the kids and us!"

No, thank YOU for being a teacher!!!

" Soldiers (Teachers) asking us for our help. What are we to do, Ignore or Help? This affects our children."

Casey you have to break the mold and prove you're not afraid of
minorities, democrats, liberals, aclu (sic) types and the entire entitlement
crowd! Do that, and you'll be doing the job you were hired to do! Oh
yeah, not to mention striking down all racial transfers. And that
includes allowing not allowing whites to racially transfer either.
If you don't like where your child goes to school, move to where they
can be zoned into a school of your preference, that's what I had to do!

In the Sunday, January 29,2012 edition of The Huntsville Times, school board member David Blair is quoted as saying the superintendent is doing what he was hired to to. That may be true, however the current members of the Board of Education aren't doing what WE THE VOTERS hired YOU to do. But I digress.

Once segregated by law, school systems across the country are coming
out from under federal scrutiny at an increasingly faster rate, retiring
desegregation court
orders from the civil rights era. But once free of such orders, those same
systems are likely to see rising segregation levels among white and black
students.And that's especially true in elementary grades and in Southern
states, according to a comprehensive study published in the current issue of the
Journal of Policy Analysis and Management.

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Madison
County Commissioner Phil Riddick, second from right, presents Mayor
Tommy Battle with checks totaling $60,000 for construction of a new city
park on Chaney Thompson Road in south Huntsville. Looking on are city
Parks Manager Steve Ivey and Recreation Director Greg Patterson. (Steve Doyle | sdoyle@al.com)

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

I am re-posting this letter by contributor Average Citizen under my byline due to technical difficulties. Links inserted for emphasis and clarity.~RedEye

I confess to regularly watching “Morning Joe” for the political
discourse and as a barometer for what some Republicans are willing to
accept as true (Fox News doesn’t work for this purpose) in the face of
overwhelming facts. My previous two open letters were related to Joe’s
support of the voter ID laws while being highly disingenuous as to their
content and impact and failure to
acknowledge the political motivation as opposed to fighting a minuscule
level of alleged fraud. This letter has to do with his defense of Chris Christie and Bob McDonnell, Republicans who came under fire, but can
count on their ally Joe Scarborough to be their apologist and offer a
strong defense against the least of what has been alleged, while ignoring
the major issues.

You forcefully claim that the Governor broke no
Virginia state laws and how the Fed’s had no business getting involved.
The law used to indict the couple, the Hobbs Act, was old (1951) and
therefore not relevant somehow. This is a portion of what the law
states;

“ Whoever in any way or degree obstructs, delays, or affects
commerce or the movement of any article or commodity in commerce, by
robbery or extortion or attempts or conspires so to do, or commits or
threatens physical violence to any person or property in furtherance of a
plan or purpose to do anything in violation of this section shall be
fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or
both.”

Since you have decided that Federal law doesn’t apply
somehow to Republican Governors that you support, I think we can find
some Virginia state laws they violated although you have absolved them. They gave away state property to their children including liquor, pots and pans and food from the Governor’s mansion. State law would consider
that theft. They obstructed justice by telling lies to prosecutors along
with the people of the state in their claims that first they and then
their daughter paid for a reception and dinner again held at the
mansion. I’ll give you credit for being consistent in your defense of
McDonnell as you have backed him for months as this scandal unfolded. No
doubt if convicted, you’ll clamor for a fine and no jail time as if he did
nothing really wrong.

Regarding
the bridge your first deflection was to try to focus instead on Benghazi
and the IRS indicating somehow that it was not worthy of further
inspection in light of those other alleged scandals. You tried to
suggest that the issue was over after the second round of dismissals of
Christie staffers without acknowledging the several other members of Christie’s staff already named in E-mails in having a role, and having no
explanation how the Governor was somehow unaware of what was in the
newspaper and television daily and the subject of multiple calls and
e-mails to his office. His version of the story, and his seeming lack of
interest despite his acknowledged micromanaging style, seems perfectly
acceptable to you.

Joe you are a defender of the rich and powerful and have lost touch with
the people. While you see these instances as either not important or
business as usual. It’s clear that your alliance is with the 1% who may
no longer be funding your elections but now are your advertisers. You
tell the parts of the story that meet your objective and drown out and
cut off others with opposing views. The barometer you are is no longer
that of the moderate Republican but that of the complete apologist for
the rich, wealthy and powerful. Shame on you!

Other elected officials speaking against the
quarry were Mark Russell, president of Huntsville City Council, Madison County
District 3 Commissioner Eddie Sisk, state Sen. Paul Sanford, state Sen.
Shadrack McGill, state Rep. Wayne Johnson, Gurley Mayor Rob Sentell, Gurley
Councilman Robert Wren.Their concerns addressed environmental
quality of Flint River and Hayes Nature Preserve, unsafe traffic with trucks crossing
Norfolk Southern Railroad along a curve, heavy trucks sharing roads with school
buses, air quality at two nearby schools and a lack of local governmental
control of the quarry operation.

What about the air quality at the new J.O. Johnson High School? What about the blasting? Would you want your children/grand children attending a school that was located .06 miles from an active rock quarry? The Rock Quarry was there first, it can't be moved, why build a new school that may or not be safe for students, teachers, administrator, and support personnel, in it's back yard? What Dr. Robert Bullard, Environmental Justice Movement founder said:

No other community, rich or poor, urban or suburban, black, brown, red, yellow or white should be allowed to become an "environmental sacrifice zone."

Thursday, January 16, 2014

So, Huntsville City Schools Superintendent Casey Wardynski presented his demand, I mean plan, HCS be released from the federal desegregation order because the racial composition of the schools is the same as it was in 1963 and it's just time. He went on to say (paraphrasing) just because the federal government was dysfunctional didn't mean the school system couldn't run itself, or something crazy like that. The reason I say it's crazy talk is because prior to becoming the Superintendent of Huntsville City Schools, he was Colonel Casey Wardynski. You know, one of them there dysfunctional government employees. But I digress....

School Board Attorney J.R. Brooks said (paraphrasing) if the DOJ doesn't grant HSC unitary status by the end of the month we are going to take the matter to Circuit Court (Is that a threat?). Now I'm not a hot shot lawyer like Mr. Brooks, but since when does the Circuit Court over rule the United States Supreme Court? Maybe he's confused.....

The actions they are taking are pure segregation. You are merging every
minority failing school onto one piece of land with schools with all
black names," he said.

Does he really think that's going to fly with the DOJ? Nope. That's probably why they are going to take it to Circuit Court.

5:10: p.m.:Mayor Tommy Battle and city officials gave closing
remarks. Councilman Richard Showers requested more transparency with the
district's plans. The meeting ended before citizens got a chance to
speak. Citizens were visibly displeased.

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Today
as we celebrate and remember the Birthday of Dr. King it is important
that we do not let America redefine him into some sweet, gentle Man who
had a Dream....Because the Truth is Dr. King spent his life exposing
Americas NIGHTMARE for too many of her People! If we truly want to honor
Dr. King we need to do what he did with our lives....so let's ask our
selves today...WHAT AM I DOING ABOUT POVERTY, RACISM, VIOLENCE,
INEQUALITY.....WHAT AM I DOING TO CHANGE THE WORLD? REAL DREAMERS ARE
HATED BECAUSE THEY CHALLENGE THE WORLD TO BE WHAT IT DOESN'T SEE OR
WANT......IF NO ONE HATES YOU, YOU PROBABLY AREN'T DOING
ANYTHING!....HAPPY BIRTHDAY DR. KING!!!! Father Michael Pfledger

District leaders will also hold forums on the following dates to hear
comments and concerns from the public on the rezoning plan:

January 26th from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Johnson High School.

January 30th from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Lee High School.

January 31st from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at Grissom High School.

February 1st from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. at Huntsville High School

February 3rd from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at Colombia High School.

Note the date and time for the public forum to be held at the school most affected by rezoning, Johnson High School, is on a Sunday afternoon because they know full well that holding the public forum on Sunday afternoon rather than Saturday evening will mean less criticism from Johnson, and the BOE can tell the the DOJ (me para phrasing)

We tried to involve them there Johnson people but they didn't care enough to show up so we did what we always do and decided what was best for them.

We all know the Huntsville City Schools BOE believes they are smarter than the average bear, but here's how their scheme could backfire on them big time. Everybody knows church is the one place you don't have to beg black people to attend...what if all the north Huntsville pastors encouraged their congregations to leave church and head on over to J.O. Johnson High School immediately after worship on Sunday January 26th?

Friday, January 10, 2014

"Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed," read a line
from the poem. "Who told 4,000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers to
stay home that day?"Then-Gov. James E. McGreevey and others demanded his resignation.
Baraka refused, denying that "Somebody Blew Up" was anti-Semitic (the
poem also attacks Hitler and the Holocaust) and condemning the
"dishonest, consciously distorted and insulting non-interpretation of my
poem." Discovering he couldn't be fired, the state eliminated the
position altogether, in 2003.

This might be the last thing I write about the Crucifixion of Melissa Harris Perry, ....and it might not be. First of all, Melissa Harris Perry is not going to be fired because she apologized for something she didn't say or do, so there is no need to stand with her, OK? White supremacy wins again. As blogger Mack Lyons said, it's an adventure in double standards. All I can say is I don't know how she can repair her credibility with me after this.

Monday, January 6, 2014

I wish Romney would go on TV and say, "No apology needed. All sides need to stop being so sensitive. All this fake outrage chills speech."
— Dale Jackson (@TheDaleJackson) January 4, 2014

This is one of those rare times when Radio Boy and I agree, and from the looks of it, Mitt Romney agreed and rejected the media enabled race baiting hook, line, and sinker.

By now everyone knows how I feel about this sad, sorry, affair. It was bad enough Melissa Harris Perry was forced to apologize for something she didn't say/do, but the tearful apology was like a kick in the gut. Hate to think it, much less say it, but I have more respect for Phil Robertson, A&E, Cracker Barrel and Walmart than I do for MHP and MSNBC right now. "Harris-Perry took responsibility for the segment, even though she never said what the right accused her of saying.
Her apology was heartfelt, intelligent, and insightful. It was typical
of what viewers see on her program every weekend. What it wasn’t was
necessary.

Robertson's comments were bigoted and racist, but I defend his right to say them.

I certainly salute Melissa for expeditiously offering a sincere apology.
I Stand With Melissa because I understand that in spite of (of perhaps
because of) the fact that she is a black woman with a P.HD and a
national television platform, she has to walk more cautiously than her peers.

A perfect storm of slow news and cultural provocation elevated Melissa Harris-Perry‘s New Year’s weekend segment, which used Kieran Romney‘s appearance in a Romney family photo as a setup for jokes about diversity, into a full-blown media conflagration. That firestorm has now roiled into a second weekend. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney
(R-MA) is expected to address the controversy tomorrow on Fox News
Sunday, and Melissa Harris Perry addressed it on air for the first time
on the Saturday morning edition of the Melissa Harris Perry show.

Melissa Harris Perry apologized, as liberals are wont to do after
right wing persecution takes hold of the media’s endless pity and blind
spots. But she never personally attacked the grandchild, and it’s obtuse
to pretend that no one gets how absurd it is that the man who ran one
of the biggest race-baiting races in history has an adopted black
grandchild. It reeks of blind privilege and a failure to connect the
dots. You see, a rich black baby will not have the same experiences as the
majority of black people in this country. It’s not about color. It’s
about privilege. The privilege that comes with white skin growing up in
one of the wealthiest counties in the nation as Mitt and his wife did.

Oh My God. Seriously? No one called the baby a thing. One person sung
one line of a SONG. Those are the words of that Sesame Street song. The
other panelist said the picture represented the diversity of the
Republican party. The RNC did a whole autopsy about how Republicans need
to do better reaching out different communities after the 2012 losses.
Melissa herself only said the baby was gorgeous and she wanted to see
the wedding between him and Kanye West and Kim Kardashian's baby in
another twenty years.

this
adoption is a political act. it is designed to appeal to black america
to vote for the republican party in upcoming elections. the baby is a
sacrifice on the altar of racism. i hope black people don't fall for
this crude, unequivocal act of black exploitation.it is cultural
suicide to let the romneys take that black child into that social milieu
of morons and republicanism, both institutions that are well known for
their racism.i strongly object to it. i don't think MHP has
anything to apologize for. unless she thinks she will lose her lucrative
TV spot.

Apologize for WHAT?So many here, are responding to what they think was said, not what was actually said. Why don't you try reading it:“Everybody
loves a baby picture,” Harris-Perry said, “and this was one that
really, a lot of people had emotions about this baby picture this year.
This is the Romney family. And, of course, there on Governor Romney’s
knee is his adopted grandson, who is an African-American, an adopted
African-American [grand]child, Kieran Romney.”[PHOTO]When asked
to caption the picture, comedian and actress Pia Glenn sang: “One of
these things is not like the others, one of these things just isn’t the
same … “And that little baby, front and center, would be the one.”Laughter erupts.“And
isn’t he the most gorgeous?” Harris-Perry responded in an attempt to
divert from Glenn’s impromptu song. “My goal is that in 2040, the
biggest thing of the year will be the wedding between Kieran Romney and
North West. Can you imagine Mitt Romney and Kanye West as
in-laws?”Comedian Dean Obeidallah had already taken the ball and run
with it though: “I think this picture is great,” he said. “It really
sums up the diversity of the Republican party, the RNC. At the
convention, they find the one Black person.”Yes, that is all -- THE END!

The fresh page of a new year—what a thrilling place to be. And to kick
off 2014, Colorlines asked several community leaders to share their
racial justice wishes for the year. We wanted to to know, what are some
truly attainable victories for justice in the coming year? And how could
any one of us help achieve them? Just reading the list we received
gives me a lot of life and excitement for what lies ahead.

2014 will be the year this is made clear to everyone: Racism is not
simply personal prejudice/bigotry that only manifests in the form of
being unkind to someone on the basis of their skin color or calling them
a derogatory name. Racism is a system of oppression, one that creates a
society of first- and second-class citizens by denying rights and
access to resources to non-white people. Racism is a system of power
created by and maintained through public policy. Racist rhetoric or
action is anything that reinforces/upholds that system.

We must begin to educate the African
American Community to understand the importance of their vote and how
these courts impact their lives. Since the war on drugs began, more
African Americans have been sentenced to prison under the Federal Court
System because of the drug laws that have been implemented. African
Americans have been disenfranchised because of decisions by Judges
regarding voting rights laws that have been enacted in the states.
Employment discrimination suits are heard by federal judges and most of
the decisions are rendered by a judge. It is important to understand the
power that you, the African American Voter have on your livelihoods and
well being. There are environmental issues that physically affect our
communities and depending on the position of the judge, these issues
results don’t necessarily end in our favor.

When asked how the country was doing “on the racial front” but Rose,
Abdul-Jabbar answered, “I think we’ve been doing some back sliding. You
know what I’ve seen you know some of the Supreme Court decisions and all
this effort to suppress….minority voters. I don’t get it. It seems like
we’re moving backwards. But I guess we are just gonna have to keep up
the fight.”

I'm back..... sort of. Trying to catch up with all of the political news and views after my annual holiday mental health break. Just for kicks I tuned in to Morning Joke, I mean, Joe to determine what the right wing is whining about in 2014, only to learn they are whining about the same things they whined about in 2013.

1. The Federal Government is impeding job growth. Oh really? I guess they think the American people are too stupid to realize the republicans control the house, and their counter parts in the senate are the party of obstructionist.

3. New York's rich fear their new mayor because he's going to take all their money and give it to the poor. Not.

The more things change, the more they remain the same...

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I didn't plan or want to start this blog. For three years years I had the privilege and honor of being a front pager at Left in Alabama. Friday, November 13,2009 was my unlucky day because my privileges were revoked. Prior to my privileges being revoked I was constantly being advised how to write, what to write, and finally informed if I wanted freedom of speech I needed to start my own blog.

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